Chicken Francaise

5 from 83 votes

Chicken Francaise is a crispy golden brown egg-dipped chicken cutlet that is served with a lemon butter sauce. You're going to love this Italian-American classic.

Prep Time15

Cook Time15

Total Time30

Course: Entree

Cuisine: American, Italian - American

Servings:

Calories: 851kcal

Ingredients

Chicken Cutlets

10 oz chicken breast - boneless skinless 2 cutlets - 5-6 ounces each
½ cup flour
½ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon black pepper
2 tablespoon olive oil -for frying
2 tablespoon unsalted butter -for frying

Batter

2 large eggs
3 tablespoon water
1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon Romano cheese -grated
½ teaspoon garlic powder
½ teaspoon onion powder
2 teaspoon fresh Italian parsley -finely chopped

Lemon Butter Sauce

2 cloves garlic -finely minced
¼ cup dry white wine
¾ cup chicken broth
2 tablespoon lemon juice
4 tablespoon unsalted butter -divided: 2 tablespoon to saute the garlic and 2 tablespoon to thicken the sauce.
1 tablespoon all-purpose flour -to roll butter in to make beurre manie.
½ teaspoon Italian parsley -finely chopped

US Customary - Metric

Instructions

Chicken

Place the chicken cutlets between two sheets of plastic wrap and pound the chicken until the cutlets are about ¼ inch thick.
If any of the chicken breasts are thicker than half an inch, use a sharp knife to split the chicken breast in half. Think of it as butterflying the breast. You're just going to cut all the way through to make two cutlets out of one large breast.

Batter and Cook

Add the flour, salt and black pepper to one bowl and mix well.
Add the lightly beaten eggs, water, Romano cheese, flour, garlic powder, onion powder, and chopped parsley to a bowl and mix all the ingredients together. This is the egg batter aka egg wash.
Add the butter and olive oil to a large frying pan on medium-high heat
Dredge the chicken breast in the seasoned flour, fully coating the breast.
Dip the floured chicken breast into the eggwash mixture and completely coat the cutlet.
When the pan is hot, add the battered chicken breasts to the hot pan. Cook for 2 -3 minutes per side until the cutlet is golden brown.
Place the prepared chicken breasts onto a baking sheet or casserole and place them on the middle rack of 350 degree preheated oven to finish cooking while you make the lemon butter sauce.
*The sauce will only take 5 minutes to prepare, which is all the time the chicken needs to finish cooking.

Lemon Butter Sauce

Add two tablespoons of butter to a small saucepan over medium heat.
Add the garlic to the pan and cook for one minute.
Add the chicken broth, white wine, and lemon juice to the saucepot and bring to a light boil. Reduce the heat to medium-low.
Add the beurre manie (the butter pieces rolled in flour) to the pan and whisk it to thicken the lemon butter sauce.
Taste and reseason with salt and pepper if necessary and add the chopped Italian parsley to the sauce.
Remove the chicken Francaise from the oven and serve with the lemon butter sauce.

Notes

How to make Beurre Manie

Take pieces of butter and roll them in flour, pushing the flour into the butter. The butter should be just a little soft.

This method can be used to thicken any pan sauce or entree that is saucy.

Can chicken Francese be made ahead of time?

Yes, they can. The cooked cutlets can be made 3-4 hours ahead of time and kept refrigerated until ready to serve. To reheat the Chicken Francese, place them on a baking sheet in a 350 F oven for 15 minutes or until they reach an internal temperature of 165 degrees F.

Chef's Secret

I did not use this method when making this sauce, but when making a lemon butter sauce, I will usually add one-half a teaspoon of brown sugar to the pan when sauteing the garlic. This cuts the acidity and adds more flavor to the sauce. It does not make it sweet.

Nutrition